Taskflow unit for controlling computer-aided medical tasks within a medical computer network

• US 8,984,069 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2010
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Ax, Antonius, Dorn, Karlheinz, Ukis, Vladyslav
• Primary Examiner(s): KATSIKIS, KOSTAS J
• Application Number:
  US12/836,662
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029623A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,706 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

A taskflow unit that assigns tasks to different software units in a medical computer network. The taskflow unit merges tasks to form at least one taskflow within the medical computer network. The taskflow unit is installed on an application server within the computer network.

Claims

1. A server, comprising:

a processor to implement;

an activation strategy of at least one taskflow;

a taskflow engine for controlling computer-aided medical tasks within a medical computer network, the medical tasks being performed by different software units, wherein the medical tasks are merged to form the at least one taskflow based on an interconnection of the software units via respective ports within the medical computer network;

wherein if an input port of a software unit performing a task is fed by a plurality of output ports of a software unit performing other tasks, the taskflow engine performs activation when data of at least one of the output ports is received at the input port;

and

data flow within the taskflow, wherein the software units each include presentation logic for at least one of user interface visualization, business logic and a remote service, and the at least one of the presentation logic, business logic and remote service are distributed on a plurality of computers within the medical computer network, wherein the server is an application server and the processor controls sending at least one configuration file to a client device within the medical computer network for use by the client device for processing workflows.

2. The server as claimed in claim 1, wherein no taskflow status and no DICOM object is transmitted by the taskflow engine.

3. The server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the medical tasks comprise different layer distribution architectures.

4. The server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the taskflow engine is installed on an application server within the computer network.

5. The server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the taskflow is a processing sequence of at least one medical task.

6. The server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the taskflow engine includes at least one of a device and module for sending messages for control purposes between the taskflow engine and at least one of the different software units.

7. The server as claimed in claim 6, wherein the messages are provided with a modifiable XML description.

8. The server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computer-aided medical tasks are separable such that at least one computer-aided medical tasks is shared among a plurality of client devices.

9. The server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computer-aided medical tasks are installed on different computers within the computer network and the processor is configured to interconnect the computer-aided medical tasks to form a taskflow.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein no taskflow status and no DICOM object is transmitted by the taskflow engine.

10. A method of controlling computer-aided medical tasks within a medical computer network, comprising:

assigning computer-aided medical tasks to different software units that perform the medical tasks via a processor; and

an activation strategy of at least one computer-aided medical task;

merging the computer-aided medical tasks to form at least one taskflow based on an interconnection of the software units via respective ports within the medical computer network via the processor, wherein if an input port of a software unit performing a task is fed by a plurality of output ports of a software unit performing other tasks, the taskflow engine performs activation when data of at least one of the output ports is received at the input port, and data flow within the taskflow, wherein the software units each include presentation logic for at least one of user interface visualization, business logic and a remote service, and the at least one of the presentation logic, business logic and remote service are distributed on a plurality of computers within the medical computer network, wherein the processor controls sending at least one configuration file to a client device within the medical computer network for use by the client device for processing workflows.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the controlling is performed by a taskflow engine which is installed on an application server within the computer network.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

forming a taskflow from computer-aided medical tasks installed on different computers within the computer network.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the merging of the computer-aided medical tasks includes merging medical tasks having different layer distribution architectures.

14. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising:

sending messages between the taskflow engine and at least one of the different software unit to control the computer-aided medical tasks.

15. The method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising:

providing the messages with a modifiable XML description.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium including program segments for, when executed on a computer device, causing the computer device to implement the method of claim 10.